Month: September 2013

Stunning Fall colour on these Oak leaves
Had a short walk with bdot and the dog along the Caledon Rail Trail today in East Caledon. We are both feeling a little run down so didn’t ultimately get around to as much as we expected to this weekend. Still, laundry, vacuuming, groceries, housework still done. Yup. We did manage a short trip to Orangeville to pick up glass for one of the kitchen cabinets. Naturally a trip to OV would be incomplete without stopping at our favourite chocolatier. She delighted us with a curious chocolate filled will pop-rocks. A little unexpected snap crackle and pop. We debated stopping at Hole-E-Burger in Bolton for dinner but we had shrimp thawing already, so that food adventure will have to wait until another day.

Still loving the kitchen. The big picture for the backyard is also becoming a little more apparent. Even though it may be a year or farther away from coming to fruition.

google is 15!
With the many megacorps out there you eventually have to get in bed with one of them. Lots of people like Apple, some Samsung… I’ve been using many of google’s products for years. I’ve been pretty happy with the relationship so far. So, happy birthday big G. They celebrated with a little game on their front page. Well done, they are usually all HTML5 as well.

Not sure what was going on this morning on the commute in. Douchbaggery aplenty. Then I get into work to hear a co-worker witnessed an accident. Slow the fsck down people. Dead people are late for everything.

Happy to report that phase one of the backyard reno has been completed! Presently it looks like hell however because we are running power to new patio we put in. So – there is a massive trench running from the house all the way to the back of the yard for the power cables. The power will be hooked up next week so that will be awesome. We also had the base for a future pergola put in. One day… The patio itself we are very happy with. It has a nice pear shape and the brick is Earth tones. Certainly looking forward to taking advantage of the shade back there next year.

Watched the incredible rock and roll documentary Sound City produced by Dave Grohl. An absolute must watch for music nerds. Full of musical passion, musical history and performances from numerous bands. Enjoyable, insightful and fascinating from numerous angles. Rating:****1/2

You’ve been…Shanabanned!
It was my first ball hockey night last evening in several months. Naturally I was expecting pretty nasty post-game aches and pains. Yes, I’m certainly feeling some tightness but it isn’t as bad as I was anticipating. Perhaps the epsom salt soak saved the day? I did try to do some jogging prior to the game maybe that shocked my body awake? Anyway, we play in small school gym. There are no windows, no fans and no ventilation. It gets ridiculously hot. I’m sure if we found another option to play in we would take it. Some guy were even saying they can’t catch their breath due to the heat. Our goalie became so hot he had to stop playing in net. Needless to say, everyone comes out of a night’s playing a soaking mess. It does feel good to be doing something however.

The rulings from the NHL Director of player safety came down for the incidents at the Leafs/Sabres game. Yes, the Shanabans. Once again the NHL ruling are an incomprehensible steaming pile. So Kessel got the rest of pre-season off. What does that mean? It means nothing. Players aren’t paid for pre-season, so really Kessel got a vacation. If Shanny thought he did nothing wrong give him zero games. If Shanny thought he should be held accountable for swinging his stick multiple times like a little bitch even after another player had engaged Scott then he should have got 2 or more REGULAR SEASON games. The actual ruling, like nearly every ruling from the NHL, is baffling. I guess it sends the message that it is okay for star players to wildly swing their sticks like Paul Bunyan. Unreal. Equally baffling are the fines for Sabres coach Rolston for player selection and team conduct. I guess coaches no longer have real say in who they put onto the ice. Shit like this makes me worry about the future of the league. These toothless, embarrassing rulings which are suppose to protect the players on the ice, over and over say the opposite. What has to happen for real discipline to occur? I shudder to think. Sigh.

Joined the work 6/49 pool. It would be nice to win a big bunch of money.

Goodbye Dexter
Huh. So that is how the writers decided to end Dexter? Hmm. Not really sure what I think of that. Sad a few characters had to go… For the most part, it was a pretty remarkable series. I thought Michael C. Hall was incredible in the role. I’m sad the series is over… but it was certainly time. Goodbye Dexter.

~ ! spoiler reflections below ! ~

…yeah so I’ve been pondering the ending. I guess mentally it makes some sense but emotionally it was pretty empty. Dex essentially puts himself in self-defined isolation (a punishment?) away from what was looking like a promising future. His reasoning was that he hurts everyone in his life with the final straw being his sister. Fine. Got that. I just felt the ending should have went to one of the extreme emotional ends… Either he was captured and executed or he makes a flight and ends up living happily ever after in Argentina with Hanna and Harrison. As much of an anti-hero as the character was, the ending I wanted was for him to overcome? the dark passenger and end his days in Argentina without another kill. Oh well, hopefully Breaking Bad won’t disappoint. The lovely Yvonne Strahovski will help me to forget the weak? cop-out? ending.

Whoa. Miller is fighting.
Well if last night’s Sabres/Leafs game is any indication, it is safe to say hockey is back! There was a line brawl which started after Sabres Tropp took a nasty header into the ice. The next shift Sabres Scott went after Kessel which caused everything to explode. Now there is finger pointing everywhere. I wonder WTF Randy Carlyle was thinking leaving the skill line out against the Sabres goons? HE HAD LAST CHANGE. Stupid. So what happened is Scott went after Kessel. Kessel fled and started swinging his stick like a little bitch. Now I can understand running away from Scott. Kessel has zero business trying to fight him. Running away is the correct course of action. Swinging your stick however is not. It will be curious to see if any suspensions are handed out.

Leaf/Sabres games always have a heightened level of combativeness. With the bar set already in preseason, I can’t wait to see what happens in the real games. *smirk* I also found it amusing to see Miller try and toss them. I was concerned about him getting injured but he didn’t fare too badly although it looked like Bernier got the better shots in.

One more Breaking Bad episode left. It has been an awesome series. I’m hoping the final chapter ends on a high note. Watching Dexter finale tonight. Some how I’ve miraculously avoided spoilers so far…

Fall Colour in Ontario
Saturday I ventured to Niagara with KK to my alma mater for the university’s 50th anniversary. We met up with MikeMike at a Motel 8 in the Falls then headed up to the school. We were all stunned at the impressive new buildings and huge food court. When we attended the school many moons ago the food court area was grass and trees. A few things have changed a lot. We walked around reminiscing for a while. Visiting the Alphabet Blocks, the library and getting locked outside by Alphie’s Trough.Ahh, memories of the Brock Library
I also dropped by the Brock Press where I spent most of my university time. Good times. If you didn’t want to pay a ridiculous amount of money to see a mediocre band there was nothing for alumni wandering around campus to do. It was very disappointing on the weekend of the 50th anniversary the aforementioned Trough was closed. Fail Brock! FAIL! So we, along with what seem like most attending Brock students, headed to downtown St.Catharines.Thistle Corridor’s legendary eye
First order of business was dinner. Again, back in the day we all loved a bar in downtown St.Catharines called Gord’s. Gord’s was dark, eerie and the only place in Niagara that you could dance to industrial. It was awesome. We all spent most Saturdays there for most of our twenties. It closed many years ago. However it recently reopened again as Gord’s. So naturally we were eager to check it out. It now holds none of the old magic it used it. It is now just another generic sports bar that could be anywhere. The evening crowd is dull and the atmosphere is dull. Ho-hum, likely won’t return anytime soon in the evening. We did have dinner there however and it was quite good. Our waitress was excellent. After dinner we grabbed Captain and returned downtown. By this time St.Paul street was getting busy with Brock students. The first two bars we went into had no seating. So we ended up at the bar formerly known as Millennium. It has a new name but since the Millennium chairs are still there and it basically looks the same I’ll just refer to it as Millennium. We played some pool, had some drinks and enjoyed most of the live band that was playing. I think the band was called Roosevelt but I can’t find any info on them. *shrug* We returned to Gord’s for last call. If you recall the Gord’s/Shooters days of old. Gord’s is now basically was Shooters was 20 years ago. Ho-hum.

I was a little surprised to see the chaos unfolding on St.Paul street as drunken frat boy types spilled out of the bars. There were people wandering all over the road not paying any attention to cars, traffic or anything around them. I’d be shocked if someone wasn’t injured. Especially since St.Paul keeps changing whether it is one way or bi-directional. We saw cars running stop signs on St.Paul all night long. We all wondering if we acted with such reckless douchbaggery back in the day. We hoped that we did not…

It was a great night. Lots of laughs. It was awesome to see the guys. We get so few chance to do that these days.
For breakfast we stopped at the new staple Blueline in the Falls. They create such a great atmosphere there and the staff is exceptional. We wandered around the hockey memorabilia for quite awhile before we left.

Bdot was busy in my absence. She had more of the kitchen unpacked and the art back up on the walls. It is a joy to have a functional kitchen back!

Bolton Fair
Went with bdot, her BiL and two of our nephews to the Bolton fair tonight. The boys wanted to go to the Derby. It was pretty fun. It could have used a few more cars to smash up. As we were walking around it started raining. Immediately every teenage girl there (and there were many) started screaming. *eyeroll*

Tomorrow I’m heading down to Niagara for Brock reunion and an evening with the ‘da boyz. Should be trouble.

Curious how an Aside Post (which this is) differs from a Standard post. hmm. The scope of reorganizing the data for this site is monstrous. I have to edit over 2000 posts. *gulp!* Yes, that massive ‘uncategorized’ number on the right. The image paths no longer match up and the categories and tags are all absent. So… getting unsung completely over to WordPress is going to take a long time.

Sabres are looking good so far, lots of contributions from the rookies. Will the success carry over to the regular season? Stay tuned sports fans.